By Jawad Ahmed ISLAMABAD, Jan. 25 (INP-WealthPK): Over 90% of Pakistan’s passenger travel and over 96% of freight trade take place through roads. The country has a road network of over 263,000 kilometres comprising motorways, national and provincial highways, district roads and farm-to-market roads. As the most populous province that contributes significantly to the GDP, Punjab has the largest network of roads and the highest proportion of road traffic. According to the Punjab Bureau of Statistics, the province’s entire road length is about 87,744kms with a total of 2,062km national highways, 443km of motorways, 46,086km farm-to-market roads, 35,454km provincial highways, and 3,374km of sugar-cess-roads. That shows that more than half of Punjab's total road infrastructure comprises farm-to-market roads, thus highlighting the importance of rural-urban connectivity. Well-developed rural roads are critical for a country's growth since they strengthen farm-to-market connectivity, facilitate speedy arrival of agriculture products in market, eliminate the chances of the produce being spoiled, boost farmers’ incomes, leading to poverty alleviation and prosperity. Importance of rural road connectivity Punjab's rural population accounts for roughly 63% of the overall headcount, making it a substantial part of the province's demography. According to the Pakistan Labour Force Survey 2018-19, agriculture is the most important sector in Punjab, employing 39.2% of the total population, followed by services and industry, which employ 37.8% and 23% of people, respectively. Pakistan's overall working-age population is 153.5 million with 87 million belonging to Punjab. Source: PBS, Pakistan Labor Force Survey The government of Punjab had launched a three-year programme in 2015 to rehabilitate and construct rural roads. The project got completed in three phases with a cost of $16.5 million. Approximately, 15,000 kilometres of roads were rehabilitated and 5,000 kilometres were constructed. In order to ensure speedy farm-to-market access, the provincial government had also launched the Rural Accessibility Programme (RAP) in 2018. The programme is being carried out by the Punjab highways department, which allocated total Rs15.38 billion in the fiscal years 2018-19 and 2019-20. Such infrastructural development projects, especially the construction of roads from farms to markets will open up employment opportunities for the local communities. The Punjab province, which acts as a trading transit point for China, Iran, India and the Central Asian Republics due to its geostrategic location, is also benefitting from the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. The CPEC, which connects Islamabad with a host of regional countries through land and sea routes, also comprises the Eastern Line, which is a network of highways being built in Punjab and Sindh, connecting major cities of the two provinces. Well-developed urban-rural connectivity can transform the country’s agriculture sector and can help the government realise its objective of ensuring food security and cutting the employment rate.